I have a life........NOT

[Googer]

Originally posted by: dquan97

Originally posted by: Kelemvor
Jeez. Wish I understood how that works. Especially the "Diskless" part. hmm. I think my brain would explode trying to control that many characters all at the same time.

maybe ram drives?

Compact Flash connected to IDE, cheap, low power, and effective means of energy efficient. storage..

 

[Googer]

Originally posted by: alien42
good lord. how much is their power bill?

Acording to my calculations, they are using somewhere near 13KW/Hr

At a rate of .13¢ per KW/hr the total for just the computers alone comes to about- $1257.36 per month. This does not include the added load on their air conditioner from the heat generated by 46 computers, networking gear, and monitors. Plus factor in the cost of the 46 World of Warcraft subscriptions, 46 copies of World of Warcraft, 46 copies of Windows XP, and their broadband access.

Plus my estimated electric cost does not include their normal utility bills for cooking, washing, heating water, television, etc. I guess that adds another $200+ per month.


Grand Total is probably north of $2,000 per month plus time wasted updating 46 computers that could have been spent working a 9-5 JOB!

 

[Phokus]

So how much revenue do you guys think they generate gold farming?

 

[Smartazz]

Originally posted by: Googer

Originally posted by: alien42
good lord. how much is their power bill?

Acording to my calculations, they are using somewhere near 13KW/Hr

At a rate of .13¢ per KW/hr the total for just the computers alone comes to about- $1257.36 per month. This does not include the added load on their air conditioner from the heat generated by 46 computers, networking gear, and monitors. Plus factor in the cost of the 46 World of Warcraft subscriptions, 46 copies of World of Warcraft, 46 copies of Windows XP, and their broadband access.

Plus my estimated electric cost does not include their normal utility bills for cooking, washing, heating water, television, etc. I guess that adds another $200+ per month.


Grand Total is probably north of $2,000 per month plus time wasted updating 46 computers that could have been spent working a 9-5 JOB!

Yeah, that sounds about right.

 

[Wheezer]

Aside from the electric bill aspect, how the hell did they afford all that gear in the first place?

 

[RearAdmiral]

This guy...known as the "xins" plays on my server. I laughed the first time i saw him/them cause i had no idea what was going on....he did own in PVP though. pretty neat stuff

 

[MegaVovaN]

I think that sort of set-up is used by item shops for Diablo 2/ LoD.
But even better, bots run automagically...so just get several powerful computers - run d2 copies+bots in vitrual machines (4+ per computer), few IP addresses (Blizzard has limit of like 6 players per IP address), buy bulk (cheap) d2/d2lod keys, and just collect crap picked up by bots and sell. Then sell bots themselves as lvl 96+ chars and start over.

Ownage? I think yes.

edit: I think it is possible to write a program/script sequence that will let all bots join same game and act as a team, raping everything, andy/meph/diablo/baal/keyrun bosses/countess ez AND getting mad xp in process. I am pretty sure that has been already written.

That's what I might do when I finish college programming classes
Buy my cheap, legit items and chars!

 

[ivan2]

http://www.sirlin.net/archive/...ld-solo-a-40-man-raid/

This is a link to the artical talk about him.

He already regularly pvp?s by controlling 5 characters at once: one priest and four mages. I?ve seen one of his videos and I?m impressed. Note that he leveled them all up by controlling all five in instanced dungeons. Note that he has no tank, just mages and a priest. Xzin his his priest and his mages are Azin, Bzin, Czin, and Dzin. His guild: Army of Zin.

I laughed out when I read this.

 

[kainlongshot]

Originally posted by: MegaVovaN
I think that sort of set-up is used by item shops for Diablo 2/ LoD.
But even better, bots run automagically...so just get several powerful computers - run d2 copies+bots in vitrual machines (4+ per computer), few IP addresses (Blizzard has limit of like 6 players per IP address), buy bulk (cheap) d2/d2lod keys, and just collect crap picked up by bots and sell. Then sell bots themselves as lvl 96+ chars and start over.

Ownage? I think yes.

edit: I think it is possible to write a program/script sequence that will let all bots join same game and act as a team, raping everything, andy/meph/diablo/baal/keyrun bosses/countess ez AND getting mad xp in process. I am pretty sure that has been already written.

That's what I might do when I finish college programming classes
Buy my cheap, legit items and chars!

I don't really understand quite where you are getting at. Boxing has nothing to do with botting. . . You still have control over your characters, aside from some macros used in game there is very little automation. What is automated is key stroke sending. Software and/or combination of hardware can allow one to send the same keystrokes on one computer as another. The more accounts and/or different character classes the more complicated the setup. By far the easiest classes that require as little melee as possible. Because we all know melee can get messy, with people bouncing around, cc, etc. So combinations such as multiple mages (a la Army of Zin) and hunters work well for boxing (more than 3 accounts).

Thats not to say botting doesn't exist in WoW. Take Glider for example. I am no way condoning botting. I'd like to make it clear boxing is not botting. You have control over your characters, there is no sharing of accounts, and the use of software is primarily used to copy and send the same keystroke to the accounts. (ex: I press B on comp1, it gets transmitting to B on Comp2).

Aside from that, I think its a very big accomplishment to maintain so many accounts. I box every once in a while but found it difficult to maintain the characters. Theres just too much going on for me to wrap my head around. I guess the bad part of the deal is that I don't have direct access to the remote machine. I have to use a combination of vnc and other software to transmit the key strokes. Mainly use it to help me twink my characters (a simply follow command and master looter setting will suffice).

P.S. I bet patch day has got to be hell for the couple.

 

[doggyfromplanetwoof]

Holy Crap!

I mean, comon... Did they win the lotto and sit and paly wow 24/7? Jebus!

 

[Aikouka]

Originally posted by: kainlongshot
P.S. I bet patch day has got to be hell for the couple.

With something like a distribution setup, they simply have to install the patch on one machine, and send out the entire directory to all other machines. As long as they're all on and set up well, it'd be fairly simple.

 

[kainlongshot]

True, a distribution system or cloning software can synch across all the machines. I'm also talking about the UI and mods used to accomplish the setup. For the most part all the variables are stored in the wtf and accounts folder. So I guess if the machines are exactly identical and the monitor sizes are exactly identical, then yeah I guess it's pretty much a no brainer. However, I find it a bit hard to believe that there it's completely seamless. There's got to be some tweaking going on as major patches tend to break a lot of primary mods.

 

[Sureshot324]

I can't imagine him controlling 23 characters with just a simple kvm switch. Maybe if the characters are warriors or hunters he could do ok since those characters can do decently just auto-attacking. My guess that he's using at least partial bots.

 

[imaheadcase]

One of my guildies in DAOC used to run 8 accounts at once. I was his "loot" character cause his bags would fill to fast to carry it all.

You would be surprised by how many casual gamers do this for fun, not geeks at all, he was a 43 year old drywall hanger. .lol

 

[LeetViet]

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh

Originally posted by: TecHNooB
What a sweet setup..

Indeed.... I want it....

QFT

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

I've never played WoW - what kind of real-world cash could someone like this make by "farming"? Would it be possible to make thousands per month, to offset the cost of this insane setup?

 

[imaheadcase]

Originally posted by: DonVito
I've never played WoW - what kind of real-world cash could someone like this make by "farming"? Would it be possible to make thousands per month, to offset the cost of this insane setup?

Yep, that same guy I was telling you would lvl a charactor to 50 in about 2 days and sell them for $300 a pop. He could level maybe 4 at a time that way...

 

[coloumb]

[A lot of] Money seems to make people do the strangest things...

But hey - this definitely beats working 9-5 at a deskjob...

 

[Xavier434]

It makes me happy just knowing that this exists

 

[CKent]

Originally posted by: DonVito
I've never played WoW - what kind of real-world cash could someone like this make by "farming"? Would it be possible to make thousands per month, to offset the cost of this insane setup?

In the past when MMORPG commodity farming was smalltime you could. I didn't play Everquest for profit or anything, but when I quit in early 2004 I made about $3k selling game money for the real thing. A friend of mine who was one of the top paladins serverwide sold his account for $1.5k. Now though it's big business and it's outsourced, mostly to China. Profits wouldn't be worth it to someone in the states but are lucrative over there. It's likely the guy in the OP is just an enthusiast with a good bit of disposable income.

 

[smokeyjoe]

Originally posted by: CKent
A lot of the comments remind me of Idiocracy, which really struck a chord with me. In fact, after I digest it for a week or so I'm planning on watching it again, something I rarely do with films and have never actively planned until now. "Loelz he haz no lyfe!!1!1" and "Hiz g/f must b rly f4t n ugly roflolololz!!1!1" are really no different from how everyone's a "i love you" according to the idiots in the film. Keep in mind he owns businesses successful enough to drop all that money on a game which is only a hobby - 46 PCs & monitors didn't just grow on a tree out in his yard. And money attracts hot women, not fat ugly cows

The last vestiges of free thought and openmindedness are now gone. In today's world, anyone who isn't just like me is a stupid idiot i love you with no girlfriend (but a promiscuous mother), and whatever they like to do should probably be made illegal for good measure. It's abysmally depressing.

Do you see the "idiocracy" and hypocrisy in your statement?

By your logic, the previous posters should not have condemned this guy because he has successful businesses -> and money attracts hot women -> so his girlfriend must not be a fat ugly cow. That's a rather shallow way of thinking. It seems you missed the point of the movie you are referencing.. Did you ever watch it again?

Sorry if you are offended by my comments.

Personally, I don't care what the guy does with his time and money.

 

[Looney]

Lame. I've seen some of those pics before, so the guy is obviously full of shit.

 

[jdoggg12]

I can appreciate the enormity of it.... but i cant understand the logic of it

 

[CKent]

Originally posted by: smokeyjoe

Originally posted by: CKent
A lot of the comments remind me of Idiocracy, which really struck a chord with me. In fact, after I digest it for a week or so I'm planning on watching it again, something I rarely do with films and have never actively planned until now. "Loelz he haz no lyfe!!1!1" and "Hiz g/f must b rly f4t n ugly roflolololz!!1!1" are really no different from how everyone's a "i love you" according to the idiots in the film. Keep in mind he owns businesses successful enough to drop all that money on a game which is only a hobby - 46 PCs & monitors didn't just grow on a tree out in his yard. And money attracts hot women, not fat ugly cows

The last vestiges of free thought and openmindedness are now gone. In today's world, anyone who isn't just like me is a stupid idiot i love you with no girlfriend (but a promiscuous mother), and whatever they like to do should probably be made illegal for good measure. It's abysmally depressing.

Do you see the "idiocracy" and hypocrisy in your statement?

By your logic, the previous posters should not have condemned this guy because he has successful businesses -> and money attracts hot women -> so his girlfriend must not be a fat ugly cow. That's a rather shallow way of thinking. It seems you missed the point of the movie you are referencing.. Did you ever watch it again?

Sorry if you are offended by my comments.

Personally, I don't care what the guy does with his time and money.

It is a rather shallow way of thinking, and it's not how I actually feel. But I thought I'd try putting the situation in perspective using in a language more readily understandable by those who read this post and think "LOELZ HE IZ HAEZ NO LYFE!!1111!!". I'm rather machiavellian.

 

[coloumb]

Originally posted by: CKent

Originally posted by: DonVito
I've never played WoW - what kind of real-world cash could someone like this make by "farming"? Would it be possible to make thousands per month, to offset the cost of this insane setup?

In the past when MMORPG commodity farming was smalltime you could. I didn't play Everquest for profit or anything, but when I quit in early 2004 I made about $3k selling game money for the real thing. A friend of mine who was one of the top paladins serverwide sold his account for $1.5k. Now though it's big business and it's outsourced, mostly to China. Profits wouldn't be worth it to someone in the states but are lucrative over there. It's likely the guy in the OP is just an enthusiast with a good bit of disposable income.

Can't remember where I read it - but there was an article about people who's sole income was from playing MMO's and buying/selling in game items [as well as using exploits to generate large sums of gold]. One guy openly admitted that he exploited numerous credit duping bugs in SWG which helped pay for his house [from what I recall was about $300k].